Tag: crime

Change Healthcare Faces Another Ransomware Threat—and It Looks Credible
Technology

Change Healthcare Faces Another Ransomware Threat—and It Looks Credible

For months, Change Healthcare has faced an immensely messy ransomware debacle that has left hundreds of pharmacies and medical practices across the United States unable to process claims. Now, thanks to an apparent dispute within the ransomware criminal ecosystem, it may have just become far messier still.In March, the ransomware group AlphV, which had claimed credit for encrypting Change Healthcare’s network and threatened to leak reams of the company’s sensitive health care data, received a $22 million payment—evidence, publicly captured on Bitcoin’s blockchain, that Change Healthcare had very likely caved to its tormentors’ ransom demand, though the company has yet to confirm that it paid. But in a new definition of a worst-case ransomware, a different ransomware group claims to be hol...
In death, 3 decades after his trial verdict, OJ Simpson still reflects America’s racial divides
Entertainment

In death, 3 decades after his trial verdict, OJ Simpson still reflects America’s racial divides

For many people old enough to remember O.J. Simpson’s murder trial, his 1995 exoneration was a defining moment in their understanding of race, policing and justice. Nearly three decades later, it still reflects the different realities of white and Black Americans.Some people recall watching their Black co-workers and classmates erupting in jubilation at perceived retribution over institutional racism. Others remember their white counterparts shocked over what many felt was overwhelming evidence of guilt. Both reactions reflected different experiences with a criminal justice system that continues to disproportionately punish Black Americans.Simpson, who died Wednesday, remains a symbol of racial divisions in American society because he is a reminder of how deeply the inequities are felt, e...
O.J. Simpson, legendary football player and actor brought down by his murder trial, dies at 76
Entertainment

O.J. Simpson, legendary football player and actor brought down by his murder trial, dies at 76

LAS VEGAS -- LAS VEGAS (AP) — O.J. Simpson, the star and Hollywood actor acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend in a trial that mesmerized the public and exposed divisions on race and policing in America, has died. He was 76. The family announced on Simpson's official X account that he died Wednesday of prostate cancer. He died in Las Vegas, officials there said Thursday.Simpson earned fame, fortune and adulation through and show business, but his legacy was forever changed by the June 1994 knife slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles. He was later found liable for the deaths in a separate civil case, and then served nine years in prison on unrelated charges.Goldman’s father, Fred, and his sister, Kim, released ...
Meta tests new auto-blur tool and other features on Instagram designed to fight sextortion
Money

Meta tests new auto-blur tool and other features on Instagram designed to fight sextortion

Meta is trying out new tools on its Instagram platform to combat the sexual extortion of teens, including a feature that will automatically blur photos containing nudity in direct messages.The social media company announced in a blog post Thursday that new features, including the auto-blur technology, are part of a campaign to fight sexual scams and make it tougher for criminals to contact teens. "This feature is designed not only to protect people from seeing unwanted nudity in their DMs, but also to protect them from scammers who may send nude images to trick people into sending their own images in return," the company said. Meta also owns Facebook and WhatsApp but the nudity-blur feature won't be added to those platforms.Sexual extortion, or sextorti...
Actor in spinoff of popular TV western ‘Yellowstone’ is found dead, authorities say
Entertainment

Actor in spinoff of popular TV western ‘Yellowstone’ is found dead, authorities say

MISSION, Kan. -- An actor who appeared in a spinoff of the popular television western “Yellowstone” was found dead after he went missing amid a domestic violence investigation in Kansas, authorities said Friday.The Johnson County Sheriff's Office said in a statement that deputies found the body of 27-year-old Cole Brings Plenty in a wooded area. Crime scene investigators and the medical examiner were at the location, but no details were released about a cause of death. Two days earlier Brings Plenty was charged in a nearby county with aggravated burglary, domestic battery and criminal restraint. An arrest warrant was issued. Police in the town of Lawrence said officers responded Sunday to an apartment where a woman was screaming for help, and Brings Plenty had left before they arrived. He...
Lawsuit naming Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs as co-defendant alleges his son sexually assaulted woman on yacht
Entertainment

Lawsuit naming Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs as co-defendant alleges his son sexually assaulted woman on yacht

LOS ANGELES -- A lawsuit that names Sean “Diddy” Combs as a co-defendant alleges that his son Christian “King” Combs sexually assaulted a woman working on a yacht chartered by his father.The suit filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court says Sean Combs created the circumstances that led to the assault and paid to cover it up afterward. It’s the latest in a series of lawsuits accusing the producer and music mogul of sexual misconduct, and it comes amid a federal sex trafficking investigation that led Homeland Security agents to raid his homes in Los Angeles and Miami last week.Grace O'Marcaigh, who worked as a crew member and a bartender on the boat, says that in late December 2022, Christian Combs pressured her to drink tequila that she believes was spiked with other drugs. He groped ...
8 men allegedly ran a beer heist ring that stole Corona and Modelo worth hundreds of thousands
Money

8 men allegedly ran a beer heist ring that stole Corona and Modelo worth hundreds of thousands

Brewery creates special beer to celebrate solar eclipse Brewery creates special beer to celebrate solar eclipse 00:58 Eight men allegedly operated a beer heist ring that swiped cases of Corona and Modelo Especial valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars from distribution centers and rail cars in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.Seven of the men were arrested on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York. The man who prosecutor...
Burglars steal $30 million in cash from Los Angeles money storage facility, police say
Money

Burglars steal $30 million in cash from Los Angeles money storage facility, police say

Authorities say thieves stole as much $30 million in a burglary at a Los Angeles money storage facility in one of the largest cash heists in city historyApril 3, 2024, 9:27 PM ET• 1 min readLOS ANGELES -- Thieves stole as much $30 million in an Easter Sunday burglary at a Los Angeles money storage facility in one of the largest cash heists in city history, police said Wednesday.The burglary occurred Sunday night at an unnamed facility in the Sylmar area of the San Fernando Valley where cash from businesses across the region is handled and stored, LA Police Department Commander Elaine Morales told the Los Angeles Times.The burglars were able to breach the building as well as the safe where the money was stored, Morales said.The operators of the business, whom police did not identify, did n...
Two brothers plead guilty to insider trading charges related to taking Trump Media public
Money

Two brothers plead guilty to insider trading charges related to taking Trump Media public

Two Florida brothers pleaded guilty Wednesday to insider trading charges, admitting making over $22 million illegally before the public announcement in 2021 that an acquisition firm was taking former President Donald Trump's media company public.Michael and Gerald Shvartsman entered their pleas to a single count of securities fraud in Manhattan federal court, where Judge Lewis J. Liman set sentencing for July 17.The men said that they knew they were committing a crime when they made trades in October 2021 through a New York broker, buying shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp., a so-called blank check company designed to take another company public without an IPO. The pair had been tipped off that Digital World had planned to merge with Trump Media & Technology, whose main asset is...
Suspects in the stabbing of an Iranian presenter fled UK after attack, police say
Entertainment

Suspects in the stabbing of an Iranian presenter fled UK after attack, police say

LONDON -- British counterterrorism police investigating the stabbing of a journalist who works for a TV channel critical of the Iranian government said that three suspects had fled the country within hours of the attack.Pouria Zeraati, a presenter at London-based Iran International, was stabbed in the leg Friday afternoon outside his home in London. Police said Zeraati, who has been released from a hospital, was attacked by two men who fled in a car driven by a third man.“We have established that after abandoning the vehicle, the suspects traveled to Heathrow Airport and have left the U.K.,’’ Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, said in a statement late Tuesday. “We are now working with international partners to establish further details.’’P...